Virtual Jaguar libretro
libretro core · open source · GPLv3

Atari Jaguar, everywhere RetroArch runs.

Virtual Jaguar libretro emulates the whole 1993 beast — 68000, Tom, Jerry, two RISC coprocessors, the Object Processor, the Jaguar CD drive, even the link port — and ships as a single core for 16 CI-built platforms. Every claim on this site links to the commit, pull request, or test log that backs it.

Download (GitHub Releases) Compatibility data Enhancements Official libretro docs

16
platforms built by CI on every release tag — Linux, macOS, Windows, Android, iOS, tvOS, WebAssembly (release.yml)
4 + 1
processors emulated: 68000, GPU, DSP, Object Processor — plus the Jaguar CD's BUTCH controller (source layout)
v8
savestate format — and every format any released core ever wrote still loads (savestate-compat.md)

What you get

Jaguar CD support — two ways

CUE/BIN and CDI images boot through a high-level-emulated CD BIOS or the real BIOS with the full BUTCH/DSA/FIFO hardware path. Audio CDs play and the Virtual Light Machine works.

Source: v3.0.0 notes · v3.1.0 notes · per-title matrix

RetroAchievements-ready

The core exposes libretro memory maps and asserts achievement support; a CI harness verifies the rcheevos console mapping against host RAM — no account or server required to test it.

Source: test_memory_map.c · test_rcheevos_e2e.sh

Deterministic savestates

Save, load, replay: video and post-rollback state come back byte-identical, verified by a harness that reproduces RetroArch's run-ahead loop — save, replay, roll back, replay again, compare everything. That is what makes run-ahead and netplay-grade state sharing possible.

Source: PR #327 (merged, with measurements) · the test itself

JagLink networking

The Jaguar's link-port serial hardware is emulated at the register level, with a TCP transport and a multi-peer hub — Doom deathmatch over LAN has been validated end to end.

Source: netlink user guide · design doc · v3.0.0 notes

Jaguar GameDrive cartridge

JagGD detection plus full 16 MB bank switching, implemented from RetroHQ's published GDBIOS bindings — GD-locked homebrew that used to hang forever now boots.

Source: v3.1.0 notes (#312, #320) · interface notes

Memory Track saves

The Jaguar CD's Memory Track cartridge is emulated — a flash window at $900000 plus an HLE'd NVM BIOS module — so CD titles keep their saves.

Source: memory-track.md · PR #259

A crash watchdog that names the bug

A built-in runtime watchdog recognizes hang and crash signatures (GPU/DSP PC escape, wedges, video stalls, CD seek wedges) and writes the diagnosis into your frontend log — so bug reports point at the subsystem, not just "black screen".

Source: crash_detect.c

Fully open source

GPLv3, derived from Shamus Hammons' Virtual Jaguar, developed in the open with hardware-referenced tests: the Jaguar Technical Reference Manual is the ground truth, and an "acid" test suite gates CI.

Source: license · acid suite (v3.0.0 notes)

Documentation and support

The reference manual for this core is the official libretro documentation page on docs.libretro.com: supported file extensions, the core options reference, and the controller tables. It is maintained in the libretro/docs repository by the libretro documentation project — separately from this repository, so it can lag the newest releases; this site links back to the commits and PRs for anything newer.

BIOS and system files: none are required. The Jaguar boot ROM and both Jaguar CD BIOSes are embedded in the core, with an HLE BIOS as the default boot path; an optional external CD BIOS override is documented in the README's BIOS section.

Questions and compatibility reports belong in GitHub Discussions; confirmed bugs in Issues. libretro also hosts a community-maintained Atari Jaguar compatibility list, which is a different document from the generated CD boot matrix on this site.

Recent releases

Nightly builds are published from every push to develop, which currently carries the version string v3.1.0 (the CORE_BASE_VERSION this site is generated from). They are gated on compiling, not on the full test suite — treat them as bleeding edge. See the release process.